One of my quotes from my Mastery Foundation quote box is by Paul Harvey:
"In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these."
I suspect that most times, there is wisdom in Harvey's words.
But. two years into the current presidency, I'm not sure we've ever had 'times like these.'
Has any past president made as many false public statements? Has any White House been in such chaos? Who, before the present president, has held the office and been so harsh and judgmental about opponents? I could go on and on about the president's lack of compassion toward people fleeing violence and longing to be Americans, federal workers, his own departed staff members...but you know all about it--you read the tweets.
Times like these may be unique in our history.
As the president himself often writes: sad....
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
too much about ice
I just realized I'm writing a lot about the ice in Cheshire.
Sorry, it's just constantly part of life when I go outside.
So, instead, I'll write a little about the president Who Will Not Be Named.
33 days of partial government shut down. It affects 800,000 people and families directly. And millions more indirectly.
The Middlesex Cluster Ministry is offering grocery cards if anyone in the three churches is affected and needs them. People across the nation are rallying around those who are not being paid.
We need to build bridges, not walls.
And the first bridge is to reopen the parts of government that are closed down.
The president, WWMBNed. needs to realize that.
Once government is working, there can be negotiations about boarder security--but not a 'wall' that would infringe on Native American land and nature preserves and private property--but 'security'.
The president is like the ice that so consumes me. He can't melt. He can't be reasonable. He can't see the damage he is doing.
Open the government.
Talk.
Govern.
Doesn't seem like much to ask for to me.
Sorry, it's just constantly part of life when I go outside.
So, instead, I'll write a little about the president Who Will Not Be Named.
33 days of partial government shut down. It affects 800,000 people and families directly. And millions more indirectly.
The Middlesex Cluster Ministry is offering grocery cards if anyone in the three churches is affected and needs them. People across the nation are rallying around those who are not being paid.
We need to build bridges, not walls.
And the first bridge is to reopen the parts of government that are closed down.
The president, WWMBNed. needs to realize that.
Once government is working, there can be negotiations about boarder security--but not a 'wall' that would infringe on Native American land and nature preserves and private property--but 'security'.
The president is like the ice that so consumes me. He can't melt. He can't be reasonable. He can't see the damage he is doing.
Open the government.
Talk.
Govern.
Doesn't seem like much to ask for to me.
ice
The ice is falling off the trees. off the houses, falling everywhere.
It's just pas 7:30 p.m. and the temperature is below freezing.
So ice is falling.
Our deck, surrounded by trees, is ice central.
Tomorrow it may get to 50 degrees and rain.
Lord knows what that will do with the ice.
Snow is one thing--lovely and wondrous and very New England.
But ice is another thing. Not good, dangerous, to be avoided.
I fear it will rain tonight and ice over ice.
Enough with ice.
Snow I can handle and move eventually. But ice is something else all together. And it's ice we have right now.
It's just pas 7:30 p.m. and the temperature is below freezing.
So ice is falling.
Our deck, surrounded by trees, is ice central.
Tomorrow it may get to 50 degrees and rain.
Lord knows what that will do with the ice.
Snow is one thing--lovely and wondrous and very New England.
But ice is another thing. Not good, dangerous, to be avoided.
I fear it will rain tonight and ice over ice.
Enough with ice.
Snow I can handle and move eventually. But ice is something else all together. And it's ice we have right now.
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
too much to take
I sat in our driveway after going to the grocery store to listen to an NPR story about black lung disease and coal mining.
A driveway moment.
Then, tonight I watched as much as I could of a PBS story on the same subject.
But I had to stop watching. It was too much to take.
My father was a coal miner. He left the farm at 18 and when to the coal fields. He dug coal until he volunteered for the army for WW II. After four years in France and Germany, he came home with lung problems that wouldn't let him back in the mines.
Lung problems caused by almost 20 years in the mines, not four years in Europe.
In his retirement he got 'black lung benefits'--$100 a month until he died.
The stories on NPR and PBS were more than I could stand.
The accents of the men were the accents I grew up with. Appalachian accents--I can still do them if you ask me too. Mine is muted by 40 years in New England, but it still leaks out around the edges.
What a horrible fate miners suffered.
The new Black Lung is worse than any before. It's about a new method of mining coal that should be regulated but the coal companies don't pay any attention to the regulations and the government let's them get away with that.
Men in their 40's and 50's that can't run with their grand kids and have to have oxygen all the time piped into their noses.
Astonishing. Awful. Astounding.
I couldn't watch the TV show until the end.
It reminded me too much of my past and the pain of people I knew and loved.
The President Who Will Not Be Named is a big supporter of Coal.
What a jerk. It kills people, if not in a mine disaster, by black lung disease.
Wind, Solar, Water.
No more coal. But do something to retrain those brave coal miners for other work.
Appalachia--my home, my roots--is a disaster, morally and physically.
Alas....
A driveway moment.
Then, tonight I watched as much as I could of a PBS story on the same subject.
But I had to stop watching. It was too much to take.
My father was a coal miner. He left the farm at 18 and when to the coal fields. He dug coal until he volunteered for the army for WW II. After four years in France and Germany, he came home with lung problems that wouldn't let him back in the mines.
Lung problems caused by almost 20 years in the mines, not four years in Europe.
In his retirement he got 'black lung benefits'--$100 a month until he died.
The stories on NPR and PBS were more than I could stand.
The accents of the men were the accents I grew up with. Appalachian accents--I can still do them if you ask me too. Mine is muted by 40 years in New England, but it still leaks out around the edges.
What a horrible fate miners suffered.
The new Black Lung is worse than any before. It's about a new method of mining coal that should be regulated but the coal companies don't pay any attention to the regulations and the government let's them get away with that.
Men in their 40's and 50's that can't run with their grand kids and have to have oxygen all the time piped into their noses.
Astonishing. Awful. Astounding.
I couldn't watch the TV show until the end.
It reminded me too much of my past and the pain of people I knew and loved.
The President Who Will Not Be Named is a big supporter of Coal.
What a jerk. It kills people, if not in a mine disaster, by black lung disease.
Wind, Solar, Water.
No more coal. But do something to retrain those brave coal miners for other work.
Appalachia--my home, my roots--is a disaster, morally and physically.
Alas....
Ice so hard
The four inches of snow in our front yard had frozen into ice so hard you can slip and slide on it without breaking through. Tomorrow is trash day so I took the trash can out with great peril to my well being, walking and slipping and sliding on the ice.
I took Bridget out this afternoon and the backyard is just as perilous. I found a way down to the left of the deck stairs that wasn't life threatening and she did pee.
I have to take her out again at 9 p.m. and am already worried about negotiating the ice.
Tomorrow it will be 40 and Thursday around 50, but both days with rain. I don't know what that will mean to the ice. We'll see.
18 minutes before taking Bridget out at 9--steeling myself, wearing shoes with lots of tread. Hoping for the best.
Stay warm, my friends, wherever you are.
Winter can't last forever, we know that, though it's hard to imagine right now at 12 degrees.
I took Bridget out this afternoon and the backyard is just as perilous. I found a way down to the left of the deck stairs that wasn't life threatening and she did pee.
I have to take her out again at 9 p.m. and am already worried about negotiating the ice.
Tomorrow it will be 40 and Thursday around 50, but both days with rain. I don't know what that will mean to the ice. We'll see.
18 minutes before taking Bridget out at 9--steeling myself, wearing shoes with lots of tread. Hoping for the best.
Stay warm, my friends, wherever you are.
Winter can't last forever, we know that, though it's hard to imagine right now at 12 degrees.
Monday, January 21, 2019
That's how cold it is
I have on socks--that's how cold it is.
After I ruptured all my ligaments in my right knee in September 2016, I couldn't put on socks for months and once I could again, I didn't.
The only time I wore a pair of socks in over 2 years was for my daughter-in-law, Cathy Chen's, institution as a judge. And I left one of the socks in Baltimore.
I like not wearing socks. It simplifies my day. It makes less to laundry. And I like the feel of bare feet in shoes.
But today I was wearing a pair of moccasins because the tread was good on ice--which is everywhere today. They sometimes slip off without socks, so I put on socks.
They aren't bad.
(The ice that still coats the trees all around us, looked beautiful today in the sunshine--but in the light of the Full Moon, it looks magic, wondrous. The trees, I know wouldn't agree. The temperature is 0 right now at 8:26. Tomorrow it warms up to freezing. Wednesday and Thursday in the 40's with rain. What a strange winter this is. I'll decide tomorrow about socks....)
After I ruptured all my ligaments in my right knee in September 2016, I couldn't put on socks for months and once I could again, I didn't.
The only time I wore a pair of socks in over 2 years was for my daughter-in-law, Cathy Chen's, institution as a judge. And I left one of the socks in Baltimore.
I like not wearing socks. It simplifies my day. It makes less to laundry. And I like the feel of bare feet in shoes.
But today I was wearing a pair of moccasins because the tread was good on ice--which is everywhere today. They sometimes slip off without socks, so I put on socks.
They aren't bad.
(The ice that still coats the trees all around us, looked beautiful today in the sunshine--but in the light of the Full Moon, it looks magic, wondrous. The trees, I know wouldn't agree. The temperature is 0 right now at 8:26. Tomorrow it warms up to freezing. Wednesday and Thursday in the 40's with rain. What a strange winter this is. I'll decide tomorrow about socks....)
I didn't break my word
There was no post yesterday, even though I promised last week to write every day to write my way out of my Trump Funk.
The electricity went out in our area yesterday at 2 pm and wasn't back until midnight.
My computer runs of the stuff, so I didn't write.
We went to bed a little after nine, there being little else to do. I was under every blanket in the house, still in my clothes. Bern woke me after midnight with the good news that power was back. I slept until 9:30 a.m.
When I went to bed the temperature in our house was 59 degrees but was back to the 67 we keep it at when I woke up.
Cold and dark isn't the best.
Hope you're staying warm--and watch the ice, if you live in Connecticut.
The electricity went out in our area yesterday at 2 pm and wasn't back until midnight.
My computer runs of the stuff, so I didn't write.
We went to bed a little after nine, there being little else to do. I was under every blanket in the house, still in my clothes. Bern woke me after midnight with the good news that power was back. I slept until 9:30 a.m.
When I went to bed the temperature in our house was 59 degrees but was back to the 67 we keep it at when I woke up.
Cold and dark isn't the best.
Hope you're staying warm--and watch the ice, if you live in Connecticut.
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